Latest Gear Live Videos

Apparently Nokia is nothing if not persistent. This week Nokia plans to introduce a third cell phone to bear the name N-Gage and try yet again to gain some traction with its cell phone/game device hybrid. This time they spent some time with the design firm Ideo to research what consumers wanted in such a device and think they have it right this time. “The graphics problem has been removed. And phones today are always connected and you always carry them with you. Phones are now the perfect device for gaming,” says product manager Tomi Huttula.

Most curious perhaps is the decision to stick with the name N-Gage, which at this point carries some pretty negative baggage. The idea of a cell phone that plays half decent games isn’t particularly bad on the face of it but the Finland-based company learned the hard way in 2003 that gamers, who are likely to be the early adopters and initial market for such a device, won’t jump on board just because an idea has potential but lacks proper execution. There’s no reason to stick with the brand name when it has already failed twice.

Still, Nokia seems undaunted by past disappointments and is focusing this time around on the multiplayer features and streamlining the experience to be more attractive to casual gamers. Also Nokia isn’t focusing on a single model this time around but will offer N-Gage games on a few of its Series 60 smartphones, presumably as a trial run, before gradually expanding to all Series 60 models. The prices have yet to be announced, but more details should be available later in the week.

Okay, we know that since Apple released the iPhone, you’ve all been wanting to modify it to do your bidding. Over on the OS X side of things, we have iFuntastic, which provides a slick GUI interface for modding your device. New to the Windows side of things is iBrickr. iBrickr is the Windows application that makes it dead simple to modify your iPhone, add and manage custom ringtones, and install third-party applications. We give you a full tutorial of how it all works in this episode.

Virgin Mobile US has announced the wireless Aloha, its first LG clamshell . With dimensions of 3.5 x 1.9 x 0.9-inches and a weight of only 2.7 oz, the cell phone features a metallic white front and matte back. It has a 65K color display, MP3 ringtones, memory enough for about 199 contacts, voice-activated dialing, speakerphone, and a few games bundled inside for your amusement. The Aloha promises up to 180 minutes of talk time and 150 hours of standby time. Virgin plans to release the phone in September with the mini-price of $34.99 as part of their RE* Generation plan to raise awareness for at-risk and homeless youths by teaming with other companies such as LG.

We open up the AppleiPhoneBluetooth Headset in this episode of Unboxing Live. We show off the size, the two accessories included with the headset, and compare it to the Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth headset in terms of size as well. Check it all out by hitting up the video.

We’ve been getting to many questions from readers as to different iPhone features that we figured it was time for us to try and answer just about all of them with a video. This is our Ultimate iPhone Feature Walkthrough. We look at each and every feature of the iPhone, including all of the sub-options in each. Going through the list, that includes everything from SMS, to YouTube, straight through to the new iPod functionality. Oh, and the phone too.

One unique aspect of the iPhone is that you, as the buyer, get to activate it yourself using iTunes, rather than having the phone activated in-store. We figured we would activate the phone on camera to show how seamless (or non-seamless, depending on how you look at it) the iPhone activation experience is. Watch the video, and let us know what you think.

With the iPhone selling as well as it is, we are betting there are plenty of opportunities for people to get theirs mixed up with that of someone elses. After all, do you really want to turn it on and verify that the wallpaper on any iPhone you happen to grab really is your bulldog in his pink tutu? This is why we are intrigued by ColorWare‘s latest addition to their custom paint services; that being for the iPhone. While it isn’t the cheapest thing in the world (but really - is anything involving the iPhone cheap?), we know from first-hand experience that ColorWare’s work is pretty darn impressive - just check out the paint job they did for our 3G iPod back in the day. To get a painted iPhone in your hands, you can take advantage of one of three options - you can pay them $149 USD and mail in your iPhone and they will do it up nice and send it back, or you can just purchase a brand new iPhone from them, which they will then paint and send to you. That runs $649 USD for a 4GB model, and $749 for an 8GB version.

If you’re like me, you’ve been holding out on purchasing a Bluetooth headset for your iPhone because you wanted the official model from Apple. Well, it may not have been available for purchase at the launch of the iPhone, but it’s now available for order on Apple’s online store. For a price of $129 USD, you walk away with the iPhone Bluetooth Headset, the iPhone Dual Dock, and the iPhone Bluetooth Travel Cable which lets you charge the headset while on the go. The iPhone Bluetooth Headset give you 5.5 hours of talk time and up to 72 hours of standby time, and automatically pairs with the iPhone. Don’t get too excited, though, as the estimated shipping timeframe is 2-4 weeks according to Apple.